MI Chapter 10 (Patreon)

Chapter 10: Spirit Stones

The young girl settled the price with the old beggar, buying all the Spirit Stones for six thousand Talisman Coins.

There were twenty or thirty Spirit Stones in the pile, working out to roughly two hundred Talisman Coins apiece. Chen Qianliu had cultivated in his past life, after all, and knew this was a fair price for unrefined raw stones. The old beggar's initial quote had been a complete rip-off.

The young girl took out a beast-skin pouch and inspected each Spirit Stone before placing it inside. 

Two of the stones were of very poor quality. She looked at them with some disdain and with a roll of her eyes, tossed them to Chen Qianliu, saying, "Third Great-Granny won't let you accompany her for nothing. These two Spirit Stones are for you."

The young girl waved her hand and skipped away.

Chen Qianliu was secretly rejoicing. Because he had been worried about the dangers of traveling alone, he had cultivated the Mahayana Ten Thousand Flowers Fist Scripture gifted by Ling Men, despite his initial disdain for it.

The fist scripture had five stages, but all five combined were only equivalent to the first layer of Qi Refining.

Although the fist art was profound, its foundation was a martial artist's internal qi. If one's internal qi was robust, the fist art could be mastered in one go. If the internal qi was insufficient, one could not unleash the art's full mysteries.

Chen Qianliu had cultivated the Azure Emperor Jia-Yi Art to the Golden Essence, Jade Liquid stage. His True Qi was several times more robust than that of someone who had reached the fifth stage of the Mahayana Ten Thousand Flowers Fist Scripture. After all, how could a martial artist's internal qi compare to a cultivator's True Qi?

With his foundation, his progress in cultivating this fist scripture was astonishingly fast. Although it had only been about ten days, he had already cultivated the scripture to the third stage, developing several hundred jin of physical strength.

This was the advantage of a martial artist's internal qi: it could change the sinews, forge the bones, wash the marrow, and refine the skin, increasing one's physical power.

If not for this martial artist's internal qi, Chen Qianliu, at his young age, truly wouldn't have been able to move the two heavy Spirit Stones, even with his cultivation at the first layer of Qi Refining, the Golden Essence, Jade Liquid stage. 

He picked up the two large Spirit Stones, ready to follow, but found the girl was moving extremely fast this time. She vanished in an instant, clearly having no more need for her little follower. 

Disappointed, he could only find an empty spot under a large tree to set the Spirit Stones down, muttering, "Good riddance. But what about my deer?"

However, that white deer was just an ordinary wild deer, not worth much. These two Spirit Stones were enough to buy one or two hundred of them, with plenty to spare.

In his previous life, Chen Qianliu had also possessed two low-grade spirit stones. Spirit Stones were primarily formed from the remains of ancient spirit beasts or the corpses of powerful entities from antiquity. 

When excavated, they were typically raw stones containing impurities. They had to be quenched by a secret method to become Spirit Stones capable of storing True Qi.

Refined Spirit Stones were the hard currency of the cultivation world. Many cultivators carried a batch with them, keeping them filled with True Qi. When needed, they would draw upon the True Qi within to replenish their own.

Logically, Chen Qianliu should have been happy to receive two Spirit Stones for free. But he had no storage magical treasure, and these two low-quality Spirit Stones were extremely heavy, each weighing dozens of jin, pressing down on his hands. 

[1 jin is approximately 500 g]

To the girl who called herself Xiao Huxian, these were things she could toss away at will, but to him, they were the only valuable objects he possessed. He didn't feel safe leaving them just anywhere. 

"How am I supposed to keep these?" he wondered. "I can't just stare at them all the time and do nothing else. Should I set up a stall and sell them, too?"

Chen Qianliu placed the two raw stones on the ground. A thought suddenly struck him. "Perhaps... I can use a magical art to quench them?"

"But quenching Spirit Stones isn't a single day's work. I'm afraid I won't be able to move freely for months."

Only major sects possessed the magical art for refining Spirit Stones. Some sects even had professional Spirit Stone Refiners who took on external work. The fee for quenching a single Spirit Stone was considerable. 

The Encountering Immortals Sect was a major sect of the current age and also had its own secret art for quenching Spirit Stones. 

As a Servant Disciple, Chen Qianliu hadn't been fortunate enough to learn such a precious magical art, but his Senior Sister had been a peak Golden Core figure, and all the sect's secret arts had been readily available to her.

Chen Qianliu had cultivated for decades without amassing any savings. He was naturally reluctant to spend a fortune on finished, refined Spirit Stones, and even less willing to pay the high price for a Spirit Stone Refiner from a major sect to do it. 

He had privately begged his wife and learned the Encountering Immortals Sect's secret art for quenching Spirit Stones. He acquired two low-grade raw spirit stones himself and spent one year and six months painstakingly quenching them.

The raw stones he had acquired were of poor quality to begin with, and his quenching technique was crude. Thus, the two Spirit Stones he finally produced were very mediocre. 

One had been able to store seventy percent of his total power, and the other had been slightly better, storing around thirteen or fourteen-tenths of his power. 

Their durability had been poor as well. After using the better stone a few dozen times to store and draw True Qi, it had already shown signs of crumbling, and he had barely dared to use it again.

Just as Chen Qianliu was pondering how to arrange his future, he heard a female cultivator's voice ask, "Young Daoist Friend, are you willing to sell these two Spirit Stones?"

A middle-aged female cultivator in a green robe, with a plain face, who looked to be about thirty, was standing before him, looking him up and down.

He had some impression of this female cultivator. She had a stall in the Immortal Market selling various minor magical tools, perfect for cultivators at the second or third layer of Qi Refining. He had passed by several times earlier and had taken a good look.

Many cultivators who had just broken through lacked suitable magical tools. Refining one themselves took a great deal of time, delaying their proper cultivation, so they were more willing to buy a serviceable one at the Immortal Market and replace it when their cultivation base improved.

The business had no real barrier to entry; anyone could do it. It was a way to earn hard-scraped money.

Chen Qianliu quickly exclaimed, "I'll sell!"

Although he had thought about quenching the two raw stones himself, it would take too long. His cultivation base was low, and he had no use for Spirit Stones right now. It was better to sell them for some Talisman Coins.

The female cultivator pondered for a moment, then handed over a peach-wood seal. "This is the Peach-Mountain Seal, refined from a Mountain word-art talisman. I haven't refined it to a high level. When struck, it weighs several thousand jin at most. How about I trade it for these two Spirit Stones?"

Chen Qianliu reached out and took the peach-wood seal, briefly estimating its value. "This magical tool is probably worth about five hundred Talisman Coins. It's a fair trade for two low-quality raw stones. But this kind of magical tool is too common, nothing special, and might be hard to sell. Still, I happen to be lacking a protective, offensive treasure. It'll be good to keep for my own use."

Chen Qianliu's cultivation base was too low, and the magical tools he could refine himself had limited power, which was why he had chosen to refine his crude wooden staff with the Illusion word-art. He said, "I'm the one getting the better end of this deal."

He circulated his True Qi and sensed no lingering aura within the Peach-Mountain Seal, knowing the female cultivator had never refined it herself and had created it solely to sell. This pleased him even more.

A magical tool that had never been refined was easier to claim, saving the step of erasing the original owner's aura.

He was only at the first layer of Qi Refining. Erasing an original owner's aura from a magical tool, even if their power was comparable, would take seven or eight days. If the original owner's power was higher, it would take even longer. A "whiteboard" magical tool like this was far more convenient.

The female cultivator was also slightly pleased. She often sold magical tools at the Suiyang Immortal Market and had long wanted to find two Spirit Stones. But the profit margin on low-level magical tools was razor-thin, and she was short on Talisman Coins.

She had just seen the young girl buy a pile of Spirit Stones and toss two to Chen Qianliu. Her heart stirred, and she came over to negotiate.

She had been thinking that if Chen Qianliu refused the Peach-Mountain Seal, she could offer three hundred and eighty Talisman Coins. Any more than that, and she would have to give up in pain. She hadn't expected Chen Qianliu to be so easy-going and agree immediately.

She took the two Spirit Stones and slipped them into her sleeve. The two chatted for a few sentences. Chen Qianliu learned that this female cultivator was named Chen Qing, a Rogue Cultivator who lived at the Suiyang Immortal Market year-round. He felt a slight desire to befriend her.

Become a Pledge member on my Patreon to unlock early chapters for all my translated novels. Read ahead now!

[Index]

[Next Chapter]